Kanye West called "token negro" on CNN

A panelist on CNN's “Tonight with Don Lemon” called musician Kanye West “the token negro of the Trump administration.”

Tuesday evening, less than two days before West was to meet with President Donald Trump at the White House to discuss prison reform and gang violence, Lemon asked if Trump is simply “using Kanye as a prop to win over black voters before the midterms.”

Fellow panelist Tara Setmayer – also a CNN political commentator – laughed and informed viewers that the derogatory remark is apparently an old reference to material by comedian Chris Rock.

“Black folks are about to trade Kanye West in the racial draft, OK. They’ve had it with him,” Setmayer stated.

“This is not the Kanye West of 2004,” she added. “Now all of the sudden because he’s put on a MAGA hat and he’s an attention whore like the president, he’s all of the sudden the model spokesperson. He’s the token negro of the Trump administration.”

Setmayer went on to say that “no one should be taking Kanye West seriously” because he “clearly has issues.”